Walking with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) often feels heavy, unsteady, or weak, with symptoms like leg heaviness, numbness, stiffness (spasticity), tripping, and balance issues, leading to shorter steps, needing support, or "foot drop," as nerve damage disrupts signals to muscles and sensory feedback, impacting coordination and causing pain or fatigue. It's highly individual, but common sensations include feeling like you're walking through mud, dragging a foot, or losing your footing, making the simple act require intense concentration.
Balance: balance problems typically result in a swaying and unsteady gait. Fatigue: Many people will experience increased gait problems when fatigue increases. Foot drop: Foot drop is a specific kind of weakness that results from damage to the nerves of the muscles that flex the ankle.
The 6 Minute Walk Test is a sub-maximal exercise test used to assess aerobic capacity and endurance. The distance covered over a time of 6 minutes is used as the outcome by which to compare changes in performance capacity.
Characteristics of the MS gait pattern
You may walk more slowly, with shorter steps. You may lack confidence when you walk, leading to hesitation and stumbling. You might feel unsteady when turning or walking. You might find placing your foot on the ground difficult.
Tightness or stiffness of the muscles, called spasticity, is caused directly by MS. Spasticity will alter walking and cause pulling on the joints. This can result in pain typically in the ankles, knees, hips and back. Also, a fall because of muscle weakness can cause injury and pain.
MS Symptoms in Legs
Numbness or Tingling: A “pins and needles” sensation, or complete numbness, often starting in the feet and moving upward. Spasticity (Muscle Stiffness or Spasms): Tight or rigid muscles that make walking or bending the legs difficult. Muscle spasms, especially in the calves, are also common.
What are the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis?
Tests used to diagnose MS may include: MRI, which can reveal areas of MS on the brain and spinal cord. These areas are called lesions. A contrast dye may be given through an IV to highlight lesions that show the disease is in an active phase.
The T25-FW is a quantitative mobility and leg function performance test based on a timed 25-foot walk. It is the first component of the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC) to be administered at each visit.
One early sign of MS is MS numbness in feet. It feels like the feet have no feeling or like wearing thick gloves. This can make it hard to balance and walk safely, raising the chance of falling.
Assessments of balance and walking are often performed in rehabilitation of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) is a test of walking balance including challenging items such as walking with a narrow base of support, with eyes closed, and backward.
The 6-6-6 walking rule is a viral fitness trend: walk for 60 minutes (briskly) with a 6-minute warm-up and a 6-minute cool-down, ideally at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m., for 6 days a week, making it a simple, low-impact routine for improved heart health, energy, and mood, according to health.com, Healthline https://www.healthline.com/health-news/666-walking-trend-weight-loss?ref=healthshots.com, Vogue, Healthshots, and Medium. It's praised for being accessible, requiring no special equipment, and fitting easily into busy schedules, reframing walking as a consistent ritual.
The MSWS-12 is a validated, self-reported patient questionnaire rating the effect of MS on walking. 9. In the AMPYRA clinical studies it was used to demonstrate the clinical meaningfulness of change in walking speed.
numbness or a tingling feeling in different parts of the body. feeling off balance, dizzy or clumsy (uncoordinated) muscle cramps, spasms and stiffness. needing to pee more often or not being able to control when you pee.
Orphan Mimics Services & Specialties
However, triggers that may provoke or worsen a multiple sclerosis attack include:
The Original Romberg test
The patient is asked to remove his shoes and stand with his two feet together. The arms are held next to the body or crossed in front of the body. The clinician asks the patient to first stand quietly with eyes open, and subsequently with eyes closed. The patient tries to maintain his balance.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MS
Magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI) are vital in diagnosing MS and in monitoring and predicting how someone's MS is changing.
Each Challenge Walk MS event ranges from 2-3 days, and routes vary from 30-50 miles.
So in certain cases, your provider may do a mental health screening before or after a neurological exam. A neurological examination typically assesses movement, sensation, hearing and speech, vision, coordination, and balance. It may also test mental status, mood, and behavior.
Your healthcare provider will review your symptoms and medical history. Tests may include blood work, MRIs of the brain and spinal cord, and spinal fluid analysis. Receiving an official MS diagnosis can take time and may require multiple visits to your provider.
IgG index (a comparison between IgG levels in the CSF and in the serum) is elevated in many MS patients. Oligoclonal Immunoglobulin Bands can be identified in the CSF of MS patients via electrophoresis. The overall protein level is also slightly elevated - up to 0.1 g/L.
Other more advanced symptoms include hand weakness, wrist drop (difficulty raising hand), curling fingers, poor sensation. You may notice that you drop items or have difficulty gauging how to pick up an item.
The diagnostic hallmark of MS is the presence of large confluent demyelinated lesions in the white and gray matter of the CNS (Fig. 1) (Charcot 1880). The most important feature is the selective and primary nature of demyelination with the destruction and loss of oligodendrocytes (Babinski 1885; Prineas 1985).
Numbness and tingling can occur in your feet, legs, hands, arms or face. In my example, it started in my feet and then spread to my legs.